Why couldn't they have made the caster meta a % damage increase proc! WHY!

What, and make it not clash horribly with specs that don't benefit from haste much or, at times, not at all?

That would make far too much sense, next you'll be suggesting that sha touched gems shouldn't be restricted to a pitifully small amount of weapons, resulting in people never actually getting to use theirs, the nerve!

I would have been happy if they would have just said it picks the highest of your current stats (i.e. crit, mastery or haste) then you get whatever your particular class/spec stacks anyway. While not perfect that would seem to be far more favorable across the board than just everyone gets haste and some specs more procs if it REALLY sucks for them.

Meta does nothing tremendous but... when it procs and there are a ton of adds and you press F&B and spam Incinerates like a mofo and see meters cry and say "give it to me, you @#$%@" you feel a bit better in between depression for 5.4 MF.

Now, I asked the same to demonology thread and since these are currently my two specs... We are trying Primordius today. Is there something else I would do if destro is the better spec? (is it?)

I kinda hope they have the caster meta do something like "increases crit/haste/mast 30% your highest stat is always chosen" vs just the haste buff. Destro is going to have a tough time keeping up scaling wise if they don't do something but we are still early in 5.4's PTR cycle so I'm sure they haven't done a numbers pass. Failing a change to the metagem I would like to see a minor glyph for destro that has backdraft increase the damage of the next 3x incinerates 30% vs hasting them 30% so we don't haste cap quite so frequently/easily. Similar to what they did with lavaburst for GCD capping ele shaman... Doing it via glyph makes it a playstyle thing you can adjust based on your gear/strat which is always a positive thing.

I kinda hope they have the caster meta do something like "increases crit/haste/mast 30% your highest stat is always chosen" vs just the haste buff. Destro is going to have a tough time keeping up scaling wise if they don't do something but we are still early in 5.4's PTR cycle so I'm sure they haven't done a numbers pass.

I don't know, the haste proc isn't the best thing in the world but it's certainly not the worst. I know sometimes it can mess up proper lining up of CB cast time with trinkets but it also can help get off an Incinerate or two in time to generate an extra ember or get in one more CB before a trinket falls off. However, the synergy between the Destro 2pc and 4pc has me pretty excited for 5.4 as it is overall so much better for the spec then the current 4pc (though I will miss the extra CB or two on a pull with trinkets up from the 2pc).

What I am worried about, and I haven't tested this myself on the PTR yet, is the nerf to RoF ember generation as I personally feel the current for of RoF is one of the factors keeping Destro viable atm (not from damage of course but by allowing us generating embers out side of hard casts and conflag CDs not to mention the extra chance to proc trinkets, especially DoT activated trinkets). I rember GC talking about wanting to nerf the ember generation of RoF either before or during the 5.3 PTR but he siad that they'd have to find a way to increase generation without it, which they haven't done outside of the 2pc. Currently I'd imagine it would still be worth casting RoF just for the chance of embers even with the nerf. Though I haven't tested this for myself.

well i done a really minor amount of testing between live and ptr, running 549 item level on the ptr and 547 on live i find i can do about 20k more dps without using rain of fire because of the 4 set which i still dont believe is even working properly without using rain of fire at all, this is before destruction's damage has even been buffed to compensate the Rof nerf, the problem with destruction is that the design of the spec has huge scaling issues with Rof and without it its incredibly simple.

Blizzard has 3 options when it comes to compensating the Rof nerf -

1. Buff immolate ember regen, more spefically make it generate an ember on tick and double on crit.
2. Buff incinerate, this is a problem because i can already crit 400k with incin and this has 'way' to much synergy with the proposed version of kjc.
3. Buff ember consuming spells, this i dont even see as an option because im critting close to 1.75 million with all the stars alligned with chaos and it will make haovc shadowburn just a little to retarded.

Then it gets quite interesting, i actually think that the 4 set on the ptr adds HUGE gameplay to Destro because you can force immolate to be the capping spell to cast 2 chaos bolts inside the proc or use it to speed up your ember regen giving your sustained damage a lot more breathing room. I really think destro needs something like that baseline to make embers be a little more interesting.

And then there is the very very last option imo, let havoc be usable on 1 target to duplicate spells, this could balanced imo by only letting incin / conflag / fel flame as chaos and shadowburn might be a bit to special.

TL DR of this whole post, destro doesnt need number tweaks it needs to get something to make the rotation a bit more dynamic.

Looking at some of the trinkets haste capping destro (esp combined w' the meta gem proc) is going to be even more common/possible in 5.4 before even considering the ember generation/compensation issue. Maybe its just a playstyle thing but haste capping casts feels like quite a bit of wasted stats and certain gives the spec a scaling ceiling compared to specs that don't.

Comparing a "when stars align" single cast number isn't very meaningful compared to looking at averages of what we are likely to see reliably. The problem I see is there is a cap to how hard chaosbolt can hit players that is artificially low based on how blizz just "thinks" it should hit. So either they inflate the already porky 25% pvevp nerf or they just keep buffing incin/conflag/immolate. Putting more into immolate hurts destro pvp which has been in a tailspin since the CB nerf/5.3 patch. Not unless they gave us a glyph to take out the first instant tick but made the spell instant and distributed the damage over the whole duration of the spell. Devs already proved they can't do a CB "dot" without it ignite munching like a vanilla mage so I don't think that avenue is valid.

I think some minor modifications to destro's mechanics will do more for its scaling into 5.4 than anything else. Probably something like:
*Minor glyph to change 30% haste on backdraft to 30% damage on backdraft for incinerate (so no gcd capping) chaosbolt unaffected.
*Buff immolate damage, major glyph to make it instant at the cost of the initial/instant first big tick (think mage bomb)
*Increase ember generation of immo, conflag, FF, and incinerate by 30% (which is the approx single target contribution of RoF)

PVP chaosbolt needs something...if it is capping how hard it can hit other players then it needs to be easier to use. Either uninterruptable or instant at 3x backdraft (which would mana starve you in pve so you wouldn't use it intentionally outside of a burst window). Compared to what other classes have destro is just too binary based on that one spell. If its damage capping then it has to be more frequent and more useable in pvp. If destro can't keep up in pvp and can't scale in pve then something needs to be done or it becomes a leveling/low ilvl/starter kit spec.

PVP chaosbolt needs something...if it is capping how hard it can hit other players then it needs to be easier to use. Either uninterruptable or instant at 3x backdraft (which would mana starve you in pve so you wouldn't use it intentionally outside of a burst window).

Would be interesting to see something like that. Maybe 33% faster CB cast per BD charge, consuming all charges on cast? Could open some interesting PvE avenues as well without being broken.